Bits: new Nightly hotel site, £25 off SWISS to Geneva, new Priority Pass Sydney benefits

News in brief:

New hotel booking site – Nightly – with a difference

Nightly (www.nightly.travel) is, genuinely, a hotel booking website with a difference.  And you can’t say that very often these days.

Nightly, which is run from London, is based on the premise that you can save money by switching to a nearby hotel of similar quality during your stay.  A typical hotel booking site may show you, for a Friday to Sunday stay:

Hotel A – £100 per night (based on an underlying price of £75 Friday and £125 Saturday)

Hotel B – £100 per night (based on an underlying price of £125 Friday and £75 Saturday)

Nightly, on the other hand, would look at what was available on each night and recommend:

Friday in Hotel A, Saturday in Hotel B – average price of £75 per night

Another upside of Nightly is that it can show you good value hotels which, because they are only available for some nights of your stay, would show as ‘sold out’ if you tried to book them for the full duration.

Nightly will not recommend more than two hotels per trip, so you are only looking at one possible change of location.

This clearly isn’t something which appeal to everyone.  I did a lot of hotel hopping in my pre-family days but that was mainly to maximise bonus point promotions or because I didn’t have enough points in a particular hotel programme.  If the inconvenience of switching isn’t huge, you might find that Nightly offers you savings you would otherwise miss.

Note that, from a miles and points perspective, bookings via Nightly will be treated as ‘third party’ bookings.  They will not earn you points in any hotel loyalty programme and your status benefits may not be recognised.

£25 off SWISS flights to Geneva

SWISS has launched a £25 discount code for flights between London Heathrow / City and Geneva.

The code you need, which must be added to the SWISS website here, is SWISSUKGVA17.

You need to book by 15th July and complete your travel by 15th September.  A minimum spend of £95 is required.

Priority Pass adds seven restaurants in Sydney

Priority Pass recently added The Grain Store restaurant at London Gatwick’s South Terminal to its network, as you can read here.

This is an excellent deal.  You receive a £15 credit at The Grain Store towards food, drink, takeaway, whatever simply by showing your Priority Pass lounge access card.  (It also works with Lounge Club which comes with the free Amex Gold).  If your Priority Pass card allows you to bring a guest for free, which it will if your card is issued by Amex Platinum, you can have £30 of free stuff.

A similar deal has just been launched at Sydney Kingsford Smith International airport.  There are seven restaurants included.  To quote:

• Mach2, located in Terminal 1, bringing the skill and signature dishes of Sydney’s ‘Machiavelli’ Restaurant to the airport
• Peroni Bar, located in Terminal 1, serving up traditional aperitifs in a unique concept bar with a contemporary décor
• Benny Burger, located in Terminal 1, offering gourmet burgers designed by Australian master chef Shannon Bennett
• MoVida, located in Terminal 2, offering Spanish cuisine and tapas from award winning chef Frank Camora
• Bistro 2020 & Bar, located in Terminal 2, serving quality Australian beers and wines, as well as a delicious hot food menu
• Bar Roma, located in Terminal 3, offering a variety of pizzas and pasta, and a selection of local and imported beers and wines
• Wok on Air, located in Terminal 3, providing customers with fresh and healthy Asian classics, all prepared to order in less than five minutes.

Priority Pass members receive an AUD$36 credit off the final bill at each outlet, for themselves and their guests. Each AUD$36 credit will represent a single lounge visit within their existing lounge visit allocation.

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, here are the three options to get FREE airport lounge access via a credit or charge card:

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here. 

You also get access to Plaza Premium, Delta and Eurostar lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with two free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here. 

Additional lounge visits are charged at £20.  You get two more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free LoungeKey card, allowing you access to the LoungeKey network.  Guests are charged at £20 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.